Several types of decontamination systems employing various decontamination methods have been developed to decontaminate transportation assets such as, for example, vehicles, fixed and rotary wing aircraft and rail cars, etc. However, these decontamination systems do not have the capability to effectively decontaminate an interior and exterior of a transportation asset, without requiring personnel protective equipment. For example, hot soapy water (HSW) is a decontamination method that can be used to partially decontaminate an exterior of a transportation asset, but is not feasible to decontaminate an interior of the transportation asset.
Biothermal decontamination systems may define a chamber and manipulate the environment within the chamber in a manner that is effective to render the decontaminants safe and/or more susceptible to additional decontamination treatment. Such manipulation may include raising a temperature and/or a humidity level in the chamber to threshold levels for set periods of time. During biothermal decontamination, biological agents within the chamber are neutralized by the combination of raised temperature and raised humidity for the set period of time. However, these biothermal decontamination systems cannot uniformly control the temperature and humidity over the interior and exterior of transportation assets. Consequently, there remains room in the art for improvement.
In certain circumstances, portable decontamination systems are needed, to decontaminate a transportation asset at a remote location, where the decontamination system can be transported and built on site. For example, transportation assets used in warfare may encounter chemical or biological agents in remote locations, and thus require decontamination at these remote locations. However, conventional decontamination systems are bulky and thus are not easily transportable.